A PHARMA firm led by a Durham University lecturer will create North-East jobs as it bids to spearhead multi-million dollar pneumonia and Zika treatments.

ReViral, which is working on a drug to combat lung infection, has moved into labs at the North East Technology Park (NetPark), in Sedgefield, County Durham.

The company is just weeks away from clinical trials of the medication it says will fight Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), an ailment that can cause bronchiolitis and pneumonia.

To help its venture, the business has taken on research space at NetPark, which it says it will deliver five jobs.

Dr Cockerill, a senior lecturer in medicinal chemistry, said ReViral’s RSV work could take around seven years to become available.

However, he said it has the potential to make a real different to patients’ lives, particularly children, who have weaker immune systems.

He added success with RSV could also allow ReViral to make similar breakthroughs on Hepatitis B treatment and the deadly Zika virus, which is spread by mosquitos and has been classed a global public health emergency amid suspicions it has affected the development of thousands of babies.

Dr Cockerill said: “RSV represents a very important multi-billion dollar market as, until very recently, there’s been no effective treatment.

“In the UK we don’t routinely test for RSV; it’s an infection that circulates throughout the world with people being more susceptible in winter.

“Healthy people can shake it off, but if you’ve got a depressed immune system it can leave you vulnerable to other infections, which might kick in resulting in pneumonia, which can prove fatal.

“You can be infected multiple times and there are emergency beds in hospitals across the world full of kids with RSV.

“They have an antibody, aimed at preventing the infection, but only in premature babies and it costs $8,000 per treatment.

“Once we get to the clinical trial stage later this year it will be about another six to seven years before it is available, but we may benefit from a fast track approval process, which will cut that time.”

By basing itself on NetPark, the company joins other pioneering healthcare organisations, including the Centre for Process Innovation, which earlier this year launched work on drug packaging bosses said could be fitted with electric sensors to alert people if they miss doses.

Polyphotonix, the firm behind the Noctura 400 sleep mask, which officials say can transform eye disease treatment in diabetes sufferers by delivering light therapy to sleeping patients, also operates out of NetPark.

The site is run by Business Durham, Durham County Council’s business division, and Catherine Johns, the organisation’s director of innovation, said Reviral represented another coup.

She added: “ReViral is innovative and developing drugs, which will have a worldwide impact on the treatment of viral diseases.

“We’re delighted it has chosen to open a research facility at one of the fastest growing science parks in the country.”